After the unprecedented household loan regulations introduced in the June 27 measures, internet banks have fallen into an unexpected dilemma. They must fill more than 30% of credit loans with loans for low and medium-credit borrowers, but the June 27 measures have made it difficult to comply with this regulation. Internet banks are struggling, stating, "It is challenging to consistently meet the criteria for low and medium-credit loans, considering various conditions."
According to guidelines from the Financial Services Commission, internet banks must provide over 30% of their total credit loans to financial consumers in the bottom 50% of credit scores. Previously, they only needed to adhere to a 30% balance standard, but starting in February of this year, a new regulation mandates that over 30% of new loans each quarter must be filled with loans for low and medium-credit borrowers. If this guideline is violated, internet banks will face disadvantages in various processes, such as new business approvals. In the first quarter settlement of account, Kbank failed to meet the new loan 30% rule, while Toss Bank barely met the same standard. Thus, internet banks are facing challenges in complying with the new regulation.
Amid this, an unexpected obstacle has appeared: the credit loan regulation item in the June 27 measures. Banks can no longer lend money that exceeds a financial consumer's annual income when offering credit loans. Before the June 27 measures, banks provided credit loans of up to 1.5 times and sometimes nearly double the annual income of financial consumers. This is where the 고민 of internet banks begins. Low and medium-credit borrowers tend to have lower annual incomes compared to high-credit borrowers. For this reason, even if the scale of credit loans increases, the increase in loans for low and medium-credit borrowers may be slow due to the annual income regulatory effect. With additional restrictions on the amount supplied per loan for these borrowers, it has become challenging to meet the 30% ratio.
If a balloon effect occurs, the 고민 of internet banks will deepen. If commercial banks raise their credit loan thresholds, those who are not low or medium-credit borrowers will start knocking on the doors of internet banks as well. Accepting all of these loan applications will make it difficult to maintain the 30% rule. However, it is also burdensome to attract low and medium-credit loans on a massive scale. There is a risk that this could trigger alarms for soundness management, and reserves for bad debts may harm revenue. They have truly fallen into a dilemma where they cannot proceed in any direction.
Ten days have passed since the announcement of the June 27 measures, but internet banks have not found an effective solution. They are considering treating credit loan supply conservatively as a possible option. An insider from an internet bank noted, "The 30% rule must be strictly adhered to," and added, "If there are no groundbreaking methods, we may even need to consider reducing the overall supply of loans."